Doctoral Candidate in Internal Medicine Felix Vaura won the Three Minute Thesis competition organised by the University of Turku. The judges praised this year's competition to be of exceptionally high quality. - The judges always say this but this time it is completely true, said the chair of the judges, Director of the Centre for Language and Communication Studies Mike Nelson.
Vaura’s presentation will represent the University of Turku in the international 3MT competition organised by the Coimbra Group for European universities.
In the competition, Felix Vaura presented in just three minutes how his research seeks ways to develop the treatment for hypertension. The judges thanked him for an outstandingly illustrative poster which Vaura was able to use as a support for the presentation so that it was easy for listeners to understand the message. The scientific merits of the presentation were also praised.
– When evaluating the presentations, we consider how well the doctoral candidate was able to popularise science so that the message was understandable but not oversimplified, reasoned Nelson.
After the victory, Felix Vaura confessed that the victory feels a bit strange. However, the next step is already clear: now, it is time to finish the doctoral dissertation and move focus to the dissertation defence.
Doctoral Candidate Tuulia Malén from the Department of Clinical Medicine whose dissertation focuses on PET imaging narrowly won the second place. She presented her research work on brain activity related to pleasure and addiction.
– I still feel anxious, or a bit tense even, but this kind of an experience really helps me in the future to present my research to a wider audience, said Malén right after the results were revealed.
Malén managed to hide the emotional roller coaster extremely well as the judges thanked her for a very clearly structured and calmly delivered and punctuated presentation.
The public vote winner, by one vote, was Doctoral Candidate Nasrin Shahedifar from the Department of Clinical Medicine who presented her research on life after a brain injury, particularly in relation to driving a car.
Altogether 10 doctoral candidates participated in the finals. In addition to Nelson, the judges included Professor of Sociology Suvi Salmenniemi and University Lecturer in Chemistry Veli-Matti Vesterinen. In addition to the skill of popularising science, the three of them judged how much time the doctoral candidates used for presenting background information and on the other hand for presenting their own research, and how precisely they utilised the three minutes in general.
For the performers, the task was a crash course in popularising science.
– After this, I can tell any passer-by on the street about my research, summed up Doctoral Candidate in Chemistry Sachin Kochrekar after the presentation.
The competition of the University of Turku was realised in collaboration with the Graduate School, Research Career Services, and the University Communications.
>> 3MT Competition at the University of Turku
